Master Control
by Bkipper
Summary: Cyclonis finally gets a new crystal that could spell the end for the Storm Hawks as we know it... PxA rated to be safe... bla bla bla
1. Chapter 1

Only the intro!

**Master Control**

"Aerrow! To your right!!!" Piper cried to her leader, who ducked to his left as Snipes glowing club swiped the air where the Sky Knight's head had just been. Aerrow sighed in relief for a quick second, and then was painfully pinned on his skimmer by Ravess's talons. He clutched the crystal he had tightly, and made a final choice.

"JUNKO!!! Head's up!" Aerrow tossed the murky green crystal into the air, light catching and blinding half of the participants in the battle.

The wallop caught it with ease, and twisted nearly vertical to miss Snipe as well. Piper's ears shifted, the wind changing out to open space for the _Condor_, which the Dark Ace noticed as well. It was now or never.

Junko tossed the crystal with a laugh to Finn, who, with the rest of the team, headed for the ship. Piper was the last, and floored her heliscooter as much as possible. She suddenly heard a distant hum of energy. Instinct told her to duck, and not too soon. The Dark Ace's red blade singed the ends of her hair, racing after the next in line: Finn. Piper scowled at her burnt hair and hollered:

"FINN!" Her call made him turn his head around and yell.

"What-OH!" His face altered from attitude to fear. Finn dashed faster, cranking the controls forward, the Talon gaining. Finn flaked.

"AERROW! Dude!" Finn launched the crystal for his buddy, but mid way between the two skimmers, Ravess managed to snatch it from the sky itself.

"Thanks, Storm Hawk." The Dark Ace credited Finn before zooming away with the crystal in Ravess's possession.

Piper sighed. "Great. I don't even know what it is but Cyclonis now has it..."


	2. Chapter 2 Defeat and Discovery

**Master Control-Chapter two**

Piper ran her fingers through her hair, which she had brushed down. The rest of the team was seated in the room as well, accepting their defeat.

"Well... That went perfect." Finn slumped.

"Guys, come on, it was one loss. It might not matter." Aerrow tried to cheer them up.

"Might is the key word, Aerrow." Piper rose from her seat, abandoning all hope for her hair, whose ends were burnt up a couple inches. "Who knows what that thing is? And counting on all the people who were sent to fetch it... I'd say it was pretty important."

"Way to crush any hope, Piper." Finn gave her one clap and put his hands back in his pockets. Piper was a little agitated.

"Well, mister I can't outrun a Talon on my air skimmer, I'm trying to be practical. And I'm not so very happy either. My hair-"

"No kidding." He mumbled.

Piper was about to snap at him, which made the marksman duck under a chair. Aerrow grabbed her shoulder and stopped the rage in her veins from flowing.

"Piper... Let Finn be. He's not worth it." He tried to calm her, a talent that had taken years to master.

"If you say so. I just wish I knew what it was...Then we'd know what we're up against!" Piper threw her hands up in frustration. Aerrow gave her a pat on her shoulder.

"It's okay. We'll find out sooner or later." He figured and she turned to him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah... We're always the first ones that usually finds out." He lightly grabbed the end of her singed hair. "I'm just glad that he got your hair and not your head." Aerrow looked back up to her.

"Thanks..." Piper's face lightly flared up in a blush as well as his. Silence was bestowed onto the bridge when Stork decided to interrupt.

"Ahem...If I may?" He asked, Aerrow letting go of her hair and shifting himself to turn to the Merb. "So... basically we lost this crystal, Piper lost some of her hair, and Cyclonis now has it... yep. We're doomed."

Finn rolled his eyes. "Of course we are. You always say that. Even when we run out of batteries for my stereo."

"No Finn, when that happens... He finds a good place to hide all the batteries." Piper commented. A chorus of laughter except for Finn's ricocheted warmly in the room.

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"Well, well, well." Cyclonis cooed from her throne. The Dark Ace, Ravess, and Snipe stood before her, her loyal Ace holding the green crystal for her to see. "Very good. At least I have this crystal... unlike the many we have already _lost._"

Stillness echoed back to her, the three not daring to speak.

"May I have it now?" She demanded, and he humbly stepped up and let her pluck it from his hands. "Good. I am leaning towards the fact that the Storm Hawks have no idea what this is, am I correct?"

"Yes Master. We have kept this information highly classified." The Dark Ace answered.

"Good again. Do any of _you _know what this is?" Her voice was highlighted with a dare. "Well, do you?"

"I do, Master." Snipe said with pride. _What a poor idiot my brother is..._ Ravess shook her head.

"Then you'll allow me to demonstrate for the others who do not know." Her hand rose with the murky green gem suddenly starting to glisten in her hand. It radiated light in a vibrating circle before shooting into Snipe's chest. He froze; face falling and eyes shining over with the green shine of the crystal. The sudden surprise and fear was still on his wide face. He scooted around and swung his arms up and down in the direction of the Master's hand. She smiled darkly, evil dripping from her very existence. He moved this way and that, but his movements were sloppy and slow. She lowered the crystal, the glow disappearing with a swish of air, the energy being pulled back with a jerk.

"This," Cyclonis said before Snipe fell over, "Is a crystal that has been won and lost, won and lost over and over again. But now it will remain here. Or so I hope. It can control anyone whose will can be bended under yours. To completely be able to do so, I'll need one more thing. The hope seeker of Terra Barsha." Her purple eyes glared down to the three. "You are dismissed."

The three left with a breath of relief.

Cyclonis chuckled to herself. "Call me Master Control."


	3. Chapter 3 Even more discoveries

Two chapters in one day, woo!(chapter two and three!!)

**Master Control- Chapter Three**

Many hours had passed, the battle being in the morning, and Piper still was wracking her brain to find out _anything_ about what that crystal was.

_Let's see..._ She twirled a piece of hair around her finger, leaving it down since this morning. Her hand tapped a pencil on a blank piece of a notebook. _It couldn't be activated by light, it was flying in the sky and nothing happened. _She wrote **Light** on her paper then crossed it out. _Or sound... We were screaming to each other on the way back... it was silent where we found it. _**Sound** was written and crossed out._ What about other crystals? Is there another one that makes it work? Or maybe it makes it work better? _Piper decided to jot down **Other Crystals** and leave that possibility open. _Hmm...An element maybe? Does water, air, or fire activate it? _**Elements** were added to the list. _A secret word? _In addition, **Words** were added as well.

"Are you still thinking about it, Piper?" Aerrow's voice broke her train of thought and all interest was wheeled around to him. Radarr sat on his shoulder.

"Well, yeah. If there's anything Cyclonia needs to start it, I could possibly narrow it down so we can keep our guard up." Piper shrugged at her idea, wanting to figure out something.

"What do you have so far?" He walked into her room, leaning over to look at her short list.

"I just started it but, all I have are other crystals, words and elements. Light couldn't have triggered it, or sound..."

Aerrow's gears began to shift. "That's true; the sky battle was pretty loud."

"But that's it... I'm not sure what else." Her tan hands closed the notebook and her topaz eyes glanced up to him for a possible answer.

"What about your history books and expedition books? Can't there be something there if we know the location it was found and what it looks like?" Aerrow asked, and her brain woke with a start. Radarr leapt back with a weak bark when he saw Piper bolt up.

"Yes, yes that's great! Thanks Aerrow!" Piper grabbed his wrist as she dashed out to the place where she kept most of her books. "Come on!"

"Whoa, wait a minute, I-" The Sky Knight was baffled by her energy, and tried not to drag behind her. The two passed Finn, who was carrying some ammo for his skimmer. Junko was with him, carrying most of it for him.

"Where you guys going?" The wallop questioned. Piper turned back for a second.

"To find out what that crystal was!" Hollered the girl before she and Aerrow hurried around a corner, Radarr bounding after them.

"Poor Aerrow... Being led off to his doom." Finn shook his head, knowing they would be in her book room for hours. "Aw man, now I sound like Stork!"

Piper opened the door, and Radarr's whine spoke for Aerrow as well. All of the book shelves and books looked back at her and the other two.

"This would normally take me hours." Piper turned to him, smiling. "But with you and maybe Radarr..." Her eyes landed on the creature, which bolted down the hall. "Alright, with you, it'll go by much faster."

Piper stopped for a second, and realized she was still holding his wrist with her hand. "Oh, sorry." She stammered. Aerrow down heartily felt the warmth from her hand dissipate into cold. He took a deep breath.

"Okay then... Where do we start?" His green eyes scanned the room, unsure of what to do, almost uncomfortable. Piper was already opening one. She smiled at him and motioned for him to come in.

"Well, don't go to the left side of the room, that's where my log and my crystal notes are. This right side has history and crystal expeditions. Here, you start with this one. Just look in the index for the location, like you said. Maybe flip through the pages for a picture of what we saw."

Aerrow blinked rapidly when the dust from the book opened into his face. He coughed and Piper only giggled.

"Be quiet, Giggles." He said with a playful smile.

"Fine." She ginned back. "Barrol full of monkeys." Piper laughed a bit louder but shrieked when a paper airplane flew past her ear, grazing her skin. "Aerrow!"

"That's me!" He called from a desk, holding two more in his hands. She ducked as one was launched over her.

"Those could be my notes!" Piper cried.

"Nope, just blank paper. I'm sure." he stopped for a minute only to be hit in the forehead, his previous airplane thrown by her.

"I know; I just wanted to hit you." Piper laughed and covered her face but got hit in the shoulder.

He ducked under a desk to miss the tan paper plane she threw. "Breaker, breaker, 1-9, I got a new force coming in from the south. I will pursue and apprehend."

He jumped from under the desk, Piper missing from her spot. Aerrow stepped forward, silence echoing back. Piper popped out from behind a bookshelf to pelt him with three planes. Her laugh rang out when two got him in the arm, the other in the face. His foot suddenly caught a small pile of books, and he fell back. Piper dropped the other paper jet she had made to grab his hand. But he was too heavy for her. Piper fell with the boy, his arm hitting a couple books from another shelf. Aerrow's head landed nicely onto the edge of a small rug, luckily missing the metal floor. Her feet tangled with his, and she landed onto his form with a guilty thud. Her hair fell down onto his face, the silky feeling tickling his cheeks.

"Aerrow! Are- are you okay?" Piper asked him with pure worry. His arm that had knocked down a couple books was a bit sore, and he pulled it off the floor. Piper saw his face scrunch in pain for a moment and try to reach his arm. He lifted his head and opened his green eyes, only to totally forget about his pain. Piper was frozen, mouth open in shock. Aerrow noticed how close her face was, both of their cheeks red with embarrassment. Her hands held her up to try to keep most of her weight off of Aerrow, but now they shook trying to figure out what was happening. Piper finally moved to roll off of him, her lower half on top of the Sky Knight. Their eyes didn't leave each others, Aerrow's face following hers as she untangled herself from him to sit on the floor, her arms holding her up still. Her hand that had moved up and over him landed on a book, which caused her weight to slip and she fell a bit backwards, breaking their eye contact.

"I'm sorry... I didn't tell you about the books, It's al-" Piper babbled.

"Right. It's alright." Aerrow finished in his own way, their blushes still glued to their faces.

"Is your arm okay?" Her quiet question was answered as he rubbed his arm. A nod was her answer, telling it was okay.

Piper grabbed her hair, nervously running her hands through it. "At least we didn't knock over a shelf... That would take forever to re-organize." She smiled.

Aerrow returned it, and grabbed one of the books he knocked over. Piper did the same, reading the titles so she could put them in their proper spots. Aerrow gave her the last one, and she gasped.

"What? What is it?" Aerrow leaned in to her, afraid she was hurt.

"This is the book I wanted! We found it!" Piper showed him the cover. She got on her knees as did he, to both read this book that might give them a clue at last.

In big, elaborate letters, the cover was etched with: Major changes and discoveries in the history of Crystals. The brown cover was opened and displayed to table of contents. But Piper wasn't interested in that. Aerrow watched her grab the entire lot of pages to get to the index. Her slender finger scanned down the page, looking for Terra Morsho.

"Here we go." Piper exclaimed. Aerrow glanced as well.

"Pages 91, and 276-282. Which one do we go to?" He looked at her, but she was in the book, flipping through five hundred or so pages to reach page 276.

"The first one, page 91, is probably just an introduction to the Terras and found crystals in that area. The detailed pages, which we need, start on page 276 and go to 282." Piper explained.

"How can you possibly know all this?" Aerrow ran his hand through his hair, blown away.

"I read."


End file.
